Dragon Rage
by Random One-Shot
Summary: Ulquiorra. Tatsuki. It was a very bad idea to mention Orihime's kidnapping in front of Tatsuki. Too bad no one ever told Ulquiorra that. "Bankai, *****!"


**Dragon Rage **

**A Bleach Fanfic **

**I don't own any of the characters in this story. **

…**damn it….**

* * *

Tatsuki and Ulquiorra.

Rated T – because of violence and swearing.

* * *

Looking at Ulqiorra's expressionless face as he dodged _yet another_ one of her _hadō _attacks, Tatsuki decided that, although she had never had any big feelings one way or another for them before, she now officially loathed mimes.

"Too slow," Ulquiorra stated, just before zooming inside her guard and slamming his fist into her gut.

Tatsuki flew back, bouncing once off the sands of Hueco Mundo, before rolling with the momentum and coming to her feet. Still sliding back on the white sand, the girl jumped up and back while raising her steel-sheathed hands for another go.

"_Hadō 76 – ikari no kazaan!" _

It was not fire that erupted from her hands. It was a geyser of pure, molten magma that blasted towards Ulquiorra with Tatsuki's intent to 'kill the asshole' fueling it. It sent smoke through the already hot air and blasted a steaming, cracking gash into the sand. The grains melted and fused together into blackened glass in an instant and Tatsuki was left hovering above a field of lava that was making her armor slowly begin to hurt.

Ulquiorra - the bastard - chose that moment to drop out of the sky he had dodged up into and land an axe kick right on Tatsuki's skull. Kōga's armor extended to virtually every part of Tatsuki's body, but her head was the exception. There was a sweeping mask that covered her eyes, most likely a defense against the winds that ripped at her in the higher speeds, but nothing else. Tatsuki dropped, ironically now in danger of being killed by her own spell. Lava had no loyalties.

She twisted and landed on her hands and feet, feeling the sudden hot – rush – _sear_ of the heat. Being a _Shinigami_ meant having an increased tolerance for injury, but she was wrapped in a metal suit and lava melted everything and _fuck! _

Tatsuki hurled herself away, feeling the now cherry-red metal on her hands and feet and arms and shins eating away at the flesh beneath. It was the first time in a long time that she found a reason to be thankful for Kōga having the unintentional effect of numbing the skin he covered. The pain would stay away – mostly – until she abandoned _shikai_.

Tatsuki landed in a sprawled heap in the sand. She could hear the sand beneath her molten body pop and sizzle as it turned to glass. She could smell it burning.

'_Then again, that might be me,'_ Tatsuki thought.

Ulquiorra charged up and fired a _cero_ blast in a moment, and saw it pierce the girl –

- who faded out of sight.

'_Utsusemi,'_ Ulquiorra thought before Tatsuki's foot slammed into his stomach.

Ulquiorra ground into the sand and righted himself. A hundred yards away, Tatsuki was on her knees and panting hard.

"_You_," Tatsuki spat, "are an annoying _bastard_."

"You used up all of your energy doing that," Ulquiorra said. "This time, you will not dodge."

"Yeah, keep thinking that, ass hat," Tatsuki snarled.

"I don't understand why all of Kurosaki's friends are so idiotic. You know you can't win. Give up, let me pass, and you won't die," Ulquiorra said.

"Like I'd actually just _let you_ into Soul Society!"

"You speak as though you have the power to deny me. I will complete my mission. You will not."

And then he was _right fucking there--! _

"This is the truth."

Tatsuki's armor could take a lot of damage, but an up close and personal _cero_ blast was too much. Her eyes tracked the movement and her speed gave her just enough time between the realization and the impact to turn a lethal shot into something that hurt like fuck, but wouldn't kill her.

Tatsuki skidded and rolled, stopping flat on her back and staring up at Hueco Mundo's moon.

Footsteps.

Ulquiorra's pale face stared down at her. A glowing ball of energy hovered at his fingertip, pointed directly between her eyes.

"Last chance," said the 4th Espada.

Tatsuki stared at the finger of death, feeling surprisingly little fear.

"…Out of morbid curiosity, are you going to the Soul Society to steal Soi Fong-taichou's black cat figurine collection?"

A silent moment passed.

"…No. Aizen-sama has decided Inoue Orihime's presence at Hueco Mundo should – "

Ulquiorra saw a look flash across the woman's face and something in it reminded him a little too much of Halibel in a bad mood. He fired –

_- 'utsusemi again,'_ Ulquiorra sighed -

- and Tatsuki reappeared some fifty feet away, a wild look in her dark eyes.

"You _fucker!"_ Tatsuki screamed. "I'm going to rip your spine out and _beat you with it!"_

"Unlikely," Ulquiorra droned.

"She already restored the freaking hougyoku the last time you bastards had her! Why are you after Orihime?!"

What Tatsuki meant was 'why is Orihime in danger again?' Ulquiorra, being someone with good grammar, gave this as an answer instead:

"I am responsible for bringing the woman because I was successful last time. Therefore – "

"_You asshole!" _

If there was a hollow within thirty miles that did not hear her screaming, Ulquiorra would have been surprised.

"Can you do anything besides swear?" Ulquiorra asked.

_Reiatsu_ erupted, sending sand flying in all directions. Ulquiorra's vision was obscured, but the howling wind that the woman was generating with her energy did not block out the next thing she screamed.

"_Ban, fucking, KAI!!!" _

* * *

Urahara had warned Tatsuki that she wasn't ready. He had warned her that activating _bankai_ in a battle was different than in training. There was no time to acclimate to the sudden rush of power. You either rode it or you drowned. Tatsuki was still struggling to make Kōga submit to her control under the best of conditions. But as Tatsuki felt her armor shift and thicken and spread up her body to extend over her skull, she realized Urahara had been wrong.

Her eyes watched as the whole world slowed to a crawl - the grains of sand hovering in mid air, the howling a dim roar in the background, and Ulquiorra standing still like a statue.

She had all the time she wanted.

And the moment Ulquiorra had spoke his intentions, Tatsuki knew that he just had.

To.

_Die._

* * *

Ulquiorra stared at the massive sand cloud that had kicked up on the woman's declaration. A flood of _reiatsu_ – actually rather impressive in size – was emitting from the haze. His stomach still ached mildly from the one kick she had managed to land on him in a moment of trickery.

Despite the problems _bankai_ could cause, Ulquiorra was not worried. He did not hold the rank of 4th Espada for nothing. His fighting capabilities matched those of a _Shinigami_ captain, easily, and the woman did not even hold a lieutenant's badge. _Shinigami_ older and wiser than her had died by his hands and this would be no different. Ina way, Ulquiorra was actually slightly glad for it. Now, at least, he could get some decent exercise out of this whole –

- a sound like jet turbines firing up, something shiny and sharp hurtling at him from the dust, and Ulquiorra, 4th Espada, had enough to think 'wh-' before Tatsuki's steel-coated, sharply ridged knuckles deconstructed the cartilage in his nose.

Ulquiorra flew back, sand flying into the air as he bounced. What finally stopped him was a heavy weight smashing onto his chest and burying him in the sand up to his neck. Ulquiorra looked up and saw something silver – no, _steel_ and razor-edged and huge and _pissed off_ staring down at him. Hands that were bigger than they should have been and clawed and painful reached into the sand and grabbed his shoulders.

The woman hauled him up to her level and Ulquiorra saw a fish hook barbed _tail_, of all things, swinging wildly behind her.

Her claws were piercing his skin, his skin that had withstood Kurosaki's precious _bankai_ assault, and she was snarling at him and Ulquiorra could see fangs. Big ones.

"Meet Tetsusaiga, _bitch," _dragon-woman spat.

And then there was a whole lot of misery.

* * *

When back up finally arrived half an hour later, the assembled _Shinigami_ found the missing seated officer of the Eleventh laying on the desert sands and counting the craters on the Hueco Mundo moon.

"Tatsuki, are you – _what the hell?!" _Ichigo yelled.

Tatsuki, half asleep and feeling like she might drop off into total unconsciousness any moment, glared at her friend.

"Ichigo, shut up. I'm tired."

"Tatsuki, you're holding somebody's _arm_! …And… and that's an _eye!"_

"Yeah, it is," Tatsuki agreed. "Damndest thing. Ulquiorra was in such a hurry to leave, he left without pulling himself together."

Ichigo said nothing.

Tatsuki got up and started limping back towards the gate that led to Urahara's shop.

"Would one of you go check around that dune over there? I'm pretty sure that's where his headgear landed after I ripped it off of his skull and I want to keep it. You know, for the memories."

_

* * *

Do I know why Tatsuki was in Hueco Mundo? _

_No. _

_Do I know why Ulquiorra didn't just not bother fighting her? _

_No. _

_Do I care about any of this? _

_No. _

_For those of you who follow __Chivalry__, consider this a preview of what will happen when Tatsuki gets more experience with her powers. No, she won't be able to wail on Ulquiorra (even Ichigo can't do that), but she will get a hell of a lot more speed and strength, not to mention a neat (I think) new look. _

_This is also the reason I didn't describe her **bankai **in any great detail. I want it to be a surprise, you see. Just don't expect it to happen until midway in the Arrancar arc. Which is a long way off. _

_**Utsusemi – **__one of Yoruichi's original techniques involving flash step. Basically, you move fast enough to create an after image of yourself while the real you gets away._

_**Hadō 76 – ikari no kazaan **_– _Way of Destruction 76 – Volcano's Wrath – Fires a stream of really, really, really hot lava. My own creation. _

_**Tetsusaiga – **__Kōga's __**bankai. **__Lit.__** Steel cleaving fang. **__I'm not going to describe it, you'll have to read __Chivalry__ if you really want to find out. I should have that chapter up in, oh, TWO YEARS! _

_If you're wondering why I use terms from other anime and manga in these stories it is because –_

_a) some of them just fit what I need really well _

_and_

_b) my Japanese is only so good. _

_Ciao!_


End file.
